The PeaceBringers
by xPolicedog29x
Summary: Callum disappears from Katolis on the day the King was assassinated. Ezran takes up control of the throne and five and a half years later Ezran attempts to invade Xadia to make the elves pay for all that they had taken from him. But right before the armies can march on Xadia Ezran is informe that Callum still lives. But Callum is not the same as what he remembers.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Today is the fifth anniversary of his death. Five years since the death of the king, my father, and his stepson, my brother. Five years since those damn Moonshadow elves carried out their assassination. Five years since I was forced to take the throne as a child ruler, and five years since I vowed to have my revenge on Xadia for taking everything from me.

I have waited, but it has been worth it, I will finally be able to take my revenge. I have managed to unite all five human kingdoms, with one common goal in mind. We will rally our armies and together with the might of all five armies we will be able to push our way through the breach and into the heart of Xadia. We will push all the way to the Storm Spire, and once we are there, we will make the dragon queen kneel before us or we will kill her where she stands.

Once we have conquered Xadia we will make it known that they had drawn our ire all on their own. We will make it known that this attack was not unprovoked. We will make it known that this conquest is in the name Jung Harrow of Katolis and his Stepson. It will be known that this conquest is in the name of Callum.


	2. Chapter 1

Hello to anyone who has decided to take the time to read this story. I thank you for taking this time to read my story and I urge you to tell me your opinion in the form of a review or a direct message. That being said I do not tolerate reviews that are toxic to other readers, I reserve the right to remove any comments that I find to be offensive to other readers. If you have something toxic to say you can direct message me. I thank you again for reading my story

Sincerely,

xPoliceDog29x

* * *

"Sir, our messengers have returned from the outpost at the breach" Soren said as he walked into my command tent.

"And what has General Amaya sent us?" I asked.

"She says that the Elves have been dormant and that our army should be able to take those at the outpost by surprise."

"Then we march at dawn."

"I will send a messenger to inform the general then tell the troops."

"See to it that it is done."

"Yessir!"

I looked over the map of the terrain that had been placed on the table in the center of the tent and went over the plans that had been set forward. At dawn the Kingdom of Katolis will march through the breach and into Xadia and take back the lands that once belonged to the Humans in the name of the fallen prince of Katolis, and in the hope that they may be able to find the lost prince in the den of their enemies.

I turned to walk out only to be met with a red-faced Soren as he burst Through the entrance of my tent.

"Sir! A messenger has just been received from the breach. He says that General Amaya requests your presence, and that it is extremely urgent." Soren informs me

"Did he say for what reason would demand this much urgency?" I ask.

"He said that the guards at the Xadian outpost have captured a prisoner. But that he didn't know who or what they are, all he knows is that General Amaya said to tell you that these prisoners could be of vital importance to finding your brother."

My eyes widened as I realized what he was saying.

"She believes that she has a lead onto what happened to Callum!"

"I believe so sir. I will ready your horse and the crowngaurd while you think about what to do."

And with that he turned around and walked out of the tent. I could hear him barking orders to the rest of the crowngaurd and to the stable master to get ready for the trip to the breach. I knew that I should be getting my armor on and getting ready to travel as well but all I could do is sit there and think about what Soren said. How could it be possible for Aunt Amaya to have someone who knows something about what happened to Callum. This must be something extremely important for her to summon me now even though we will be passing through the breach tomorrow as we enter Xadia. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

"King Ezran, King Ezran, Ezran!" Shouted Claudia in my ear.

"What, what, why are you shouting from not even three inches away!?" I replied disoriented

"You need to get ready to travel to the breach."

I realized that she was right, I had been so caught up in my own thoughts that I forgot to put my armor on.

"Yes, your right I do. Thank you, Claudia." I reply as I move to put my armor on.

"When you are done Soren is waiting outside with your horse and the crowngaurd ready to go." She said as she left the tent.

I finished putting my armor on then strapped my sword to my hip, and finally I picked up the crown and put it on my head. I turned and made to leave the tent but as I did a small book caught my eye. It was one of Callum's old sketchbooks. I decided that if this person truly did know something about the whereabouts of Callum then they would be able to recognize some of his artwork. No matter what happened he would always try his hardest to draw. Even if it was just a stick figure drawn onto the floor of his cell. He would draw, and that would help us determine whether this source of information was reliable.

I grabbed the sketchbook and started to flip through it. There were many different drawings in the sketchbook. There were ones of me, of different places In the castle, there were even drawings of our mom. As I was flipping through the book one drawing caught my eye. It was a drawing of the symbols of primal magics of the world. But the strangest thing was that the symbols seemed to be drawn by someone other than Callum, and that is impossible since Callum would never let someone other than himself draw in his sketchbook. He wouldn't even let me draw in it when I was younger. So, who was it that Callum let draw in his sketchbook? The only person I could think of is Claudia. I will have to remember to ask her when we get back.

I closed the sketch book and tucked it into an inner pocket of my armor. I did a final once over of the room to see if there was anything I was missing for the journey. After I was sure that I wasn't, I exited the tent, got on my horse, and commanded for the convoy to head out.

Despite being King of Catolis for nearly five and a half years now this is my first time seeing an elf in person. The elf was currently chained up in a standing position with his hands above his head. He was slumped against the wall asleep. The first thought that popped into my head when I saw him was that the depictions I had seen of elves were completely incorrect. They had no fangs and their horns were tame in comparison to the image. Also, the clothes that had been depicted as primitive and mostly made of animal fur, were nearly the same design as Katolin style clothes.

This elf's clothes were composed of tight fitting red sleeveless shirt; a pair of tight brown pants; and a pair of simple brown boots which were a lot like Katolin style boots. His weapons were quite confusing though. He had a pair of short swords and a staff. The pair of the short swords and the staff had extensive engraving in a language that I couldn't understand.

The elf himself was a tall and well-built, but thin male, at least I assumed they were male. He had a pair of horns that started just above his hairline and followed the curve of his head until they turned up as they stuck out past the back of his head. His skin was about the same color as Soren's, if not a little paler. He had Plum colored markings that started at where his ear connected to his head and split off with on mark going over his eye and another going under his eye until they met back up with one another on the bridge of his nose along with one that turned down and stopped next to the corner of each lip. He also had markings on his arm. These ones however seem to be the same written language as what is on the one pair of short swords. On a second look I noticed that it wasn't just his arms, it was his whole body that was covered in these runes.

But the most striking thing about this elf is the fact that he looked almost exactly like Callum would have had he been 5 years older. The elf finally woke up from the sleep that he had been in and looked up at us with a groan. I did a mental double take when I saw his eyes. Those were Callum's eyes, this elf's eyes were the same eyes of my brother. He looked up and surveyed the group of people currently in front of him, his eyes finally landed on me and he gave a gasp of surprise.

"I was told that you have information on the whereabouts of Prince Callum of Katolis. What is it exactly that you know about my brother, if you are even telling the truth?" I asked the elf while staring resolutely into his eyes.

He looked down at the floor and chuckled to himself before looking back up into my eyes and replying,

"I did indeed say that I had knowledge about the whereabouts of your brother, didn't I?"

"Are there any questions that you have about your brother?" He asked

"Is he alive"

"yes"

"Is he being held prisoner in one of your cities?"

"No, he has been free to roam the world as he wishes for the past four and a half years"

"Where is he now?"

"Closer than you would think."

"If he was free to roam the world then how come he didn't come straight home or at least inform anyone in the Kingdom of Katolis that he was alive?"

"He found a reason to stay in Xadia and didn't want to endanger that reason by making himself and that reason a target for conflict among both the elves and the humans."

"This reason, it sounds as if it is a person, is it?"

"Yes, he stayed behind for a person."

"Who is this person to him, are they his master, friends, lover?"

"They are someone very important to him."

"That is not the answer to the question I asked."

"I know."

"Why won't you answer this question."

"Why did I answer the other questions?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I could have just lied to you about everything I just said, and you wouldn't know it."

"While that is true this questioning session isn't over yet, there will be plenty of time to figure out what is true and what is not during then."

I pulled the sketchbook out of my pocket and put it on the floor in front of the elf with the face open to a sketch of our family.

"Have you seen any drawings or sketch that look to similar to this one?" I ask the elf.

He looks up at me then looks down at the sketchbook. He stares for a second before looking up and saying, "I have not seen any drawings exactly like this one but I have seen some portraits that have a similar art style to this one."

"Where they done by the man that you claim is my brother?"

"Yes, they were done by him."

He turns to try and look out of the barred window

"What time is it?"

"What?"

"What time is it, from the way I am chained up I can't see out the window, so what time is it?"

I peeked out the window and saw that the it was nearly midnight. I turned back to the elf and replied, "It is almost midnight, why is it so important?"

"Because it's almost time." He replied.

"Almost time for what?"

"Time for me to leave. Aspiro Frigis!"

At the moment the elf yelled the spell one of the symbols on his body began to glow and within moments the shackles on his hands were frozen so cold that they became brittle. He then proceeded to smash the shackles against the wall and run to his weapons. I followed him with my eyes as he ran only to realize that he had gone completely invisible. Then I realized that it was a full moon out tonight, and he was obviously a moonshadow elf.

I cursed myself for my stupidity at not being more observant. I turned around to give orders to Soren and the rest of the Crowngaurd but they were all on the floor, hopefully unconscious, with the elf standing over them. I unsheathed my sword and held it in front of me. The noise caused the elf to turn and look at me. He came at me with his staff.

He struck first with a downward swing aimed at the shoulder of the arm that was holding the sword. I raised my sword to block it but the moment his staff hit my sword he used the momentum of his swing to bring up the other end and hit me in the stomach. The hit knocked me off-balance and I stumbled backwards. He continued the assault and hit me in the stomach again knocking the breath out of me. Then the shoulder and the hand which caused me to drop the sword and be pushed out of range of reaching it.

The elf had the end of his staff pointed at the underside of my chin. He held it there for a few seconds before he removed it and slung his staff onto his back. What was he doing?! Well if he was going to let his guard down then I will use it to my advantage. I charged at him and grabbed him around his middle. He hit me in the center of the back and brought his knee up to my stomach knocking the breath out of me again. Then he grabbed my back and threw me across the room into the wall.

"Let's calm down now sir." He said as he walked over to me. Once he reached me, he crouched down to where I was and looked me in the eye.

"What do you want?" I asked

"I want you to reconsider invading Xadia."

"Like hell I would do that, you took something of mine away so I am going to return the favor, and even if you kill me it won't stop the invasion, it will only give the armies even more of a reason to fight."

"This invasion is in the name of Prince Callum isn't it? What I find funny is the fact that you claim this is in his memory, but he would never have wanted this to happen."

"How dare you speak his name!"

"If I were to arrange for you to have a meeting, a face to face meeting, with Callum would you call of this invasion."

I was stunned at his proposition, but then I laughed in his face.

"You think that you have the time to find him, if it even is him, and then bring him back to me. This invasion will happen whether or not you like it." I said

"Is there no way you can postpone the invasion?"

"You speak as if I have control over all the other monarchs, they will not stand to postpone."

I thought for a second before coming up with an idea.

"If you manage to bring me Callum before we reach the first target then you can try to convince me to call off this invasion. But if they are not who you say they are then I will show no mercy to your kind." I said. The elf seemed shocked at the amount of venom that was in the last part of my statement.

"I will have him to you before you can reach the first elven city. But be warned, you will no longer know who he is, he has changed in more ways than one." The elf said

He then proceeds to turn invisible in front of my eyes. Once I could no longer hear his footsteps, I let out the breath that I had been holding in. As I sat there it hit me, I was going to get to see Callum! I would be able to see my brother! I get to know what happened to him! I can ask him why he didn't come back to Katolis. I can finally know the truth.


	3. Chapter 2

Dear Readers,

I am sorry for making you wait so long for the next chapter.

I had a severe case of my life getting in my way.

Hopefully now that things are starting to quite down and that I will have lots of free time with the Coronavirus shutting down schools across the country is should be able to start getting chapters out at least once a month.

Hopefully I will be able to get two out a month but that depends on how much I can write and that I don't get writers block.

Anyways, I really hope that you enjoy this chapter.

Sincerely,

PoliceDog29

* * *

Ch 2

It had been a week since the encounter with the elf at the breach. The invasion was delayed due to the elf disabling multiple of the wagons we need to keep our army supplied. The strange thing was that despite the wagons being disabled there was no permanent damage, all the wagons were repaired within a day. And even stranger still is the fact that no one was killed during this accident, none of the crownguard that were in the dungeon with me and none of the men he encountered while disabling the wagons were killed. The worst injury was a sprained shoulder on one of the crowngaurd who were in the dungeon with me.

After the incident I called a meeting with the other rulers and told them what the elf had told me. We all agreed that we should expect for there to be heavier resistance going through Xadia since they will undoubtedly know that we are coming and we agreed that the elf was most likely trying to lure us into a trap so that they could kill me. But we decided that it was best to meet with the elf and see if there is any truth behind what he said, though I wouldn't be alone, I will bring along Soren and Claudia and the best of the crowngaurd for protection.

Once the wagons were fixed, we started the march to the breach. Surprisingly enough there were no elves there. In fact, the Xadian fortress was completely abandoned. We have not encountered any elves other than a brief glance of a scout here and there. It's been three days since we crossed through the breach and the elven stronghold of Lux Aurea is currently in view. We have yet to see the elf from the dungeon again, but I have made sure that all perimeter guards know to be on the lookout for him.

We are currently in camp set up outside Lux Aurea. We had arrived yesterday evening and are currently waiting for the reply to a message we sent to the ruler of the Sunfire Elves. It was unnerving though that we had not been attacked by any elves on our march. Even more so the fact that the guards on the walls of Lux Aurea seem to just ignore us.

I was broken out of my musings when I heard someone yell "Commander" and I looked over to where the yell had come from and saw that Soren was standing across the table from me.

"Commander" He repeated.

"Yes, what is it Soren?"

"We have received a response from Lux Aurea."

I stood and made my way over to Soren.

"Where is the letter?" I asked

"I have it here with me" He said while he reached into his pocket and produced two letters. He then handed them to me and said, "There was two actually, one addressed to the leaders of the Army of Human Kingdoms and one addressed to King Ezran of Katolis."

I grabbed them with a nod and said, "Please inform the other rulers that we have received the answer from Lux Aurea."

"Yes sir!" Soren said with a nod and walked out of the clearing we were in.

I looked down at the letters in my hand, as Soren had said one was addressed to The Leaders of the Army of Human Kingdoms while the other was addressed to me. The one addressed to me had a different seal than the one that was addressed to the leaders of the army. I set down the one addressed to the army leader and opened the one that was addressed specifically to me.

There were two papers inside. I unfolded them and started to read the first paper and started reading the letter.

_Dear King Ezran,_

_I write to you from the Storm Spire to tell you that I have successfully found Callum and brought him to the Storm Spire. We will be waiting for you at the Storm Spire because, as the other letter you received will tell you, the Dragon Queen wants to hold peace talks between Xadia and the Pentarchy. Due to this both myself and Callum agreed that it would be easiest if we waited here at the Storm Spire for you to arrive. I would also like you to start preparing yourself to meet Callum as he is now. He is no longer the person you once knew and has undergone many changes, both physical and mental. Although even throughout all those changes he wishes you to know that he always loved you and that you were never far from his mind. Finally, I also wish for you to start preparing yourself to meet the reason that he stayed behind in Xadia. _

That made me angry because I had told him specifically that if he wanted to stop this invasion then he had to bring Callum to me before we reached out first target. It also said that I needed to be prepared to accept the changes that Callum has undergone. That part puzzled me; I mean what changes could Callum have undergone while roaming the Elven lands. Also, it said that I would meet the reason he stayed behind. This was big news as if Callum stayed behind for this person than I would very much like to meet them. The last sentence gave me a pause as it said, "If you want proof that this is your brother then look at the second page." What type of proof did he have that could convince me that this was no scam?

I turned to the second paper and my breath hitched. On this piece of paper, it was a near perfect drawing of me five years ago. This would be impossible to make this detailed unless you either had a drawing of me at that age or you knew what I looked like and had it memorized. That meant it had to be Callum, because the only drawing I have had done of me was for my coronation as king and that hung over my throne in the throne room. There weren't even any drawings of me in family portraits that they could use. The last family portrait that I had was when I was five. We were supposed to be having a new one done the day after Callum disappeared and my father was assassinated, so it was never done.

"King Ezran" someone yelled

I looked up and saw that the other four rulers were here and sat down at the table ready to discuss what the letter says and how we will respond to it. I folded my letter and put it back in the envelope then tucked it in my pocket.

"Sorry for that, I was wrapped up in that letter." I said

"Yes, we could tell." Said King Ahling with a chuckle

"Ok, now that we are all here, I am going to open the letter addressed to us." I said. The other rulers gave nods of agreement and I reached for my dagger that had been laying nearby. I sliced open the envelope and pulled the letter out of the envelope. I unfolded the paper and started reading it aloud.

"Dear Leaders of the Human Army, we would like to inform you that despite your blatant hostilities towards us, both past and present, we are both willing and wanting to hold peace talks between our nations, both for the current and the future. We ask that the leaders of the five human kingdoms along with any important advisors and a personal guard force come to the Storm Spire to meet with the Queen of Dragons for the first ever peace conference between Xadia and the Pentarchy. We understand that you will have reservations about your personal safety so if you wish to achieve peace between our nations then send a letter back into Lux Aurea with the size of your party and we will send out a group of elves to match that size for you to keep in your camp. This ensures that you will be safe on your journey to and from the Storm Spire. We sincerely hope that you will accept our gracious offer and come to make peace, if not for yourselves then for the entirety of the Pentarchy."

I slammed the paper down onto the table in anger. How dare they act as if they have done nothing wrong! How dare they not accept responsibility for their actions! This paper is proof that they will never see humans as equals. This paper is proof that this will only end when on race comes out victorious, and I will lead humanity to victory, for Callum.

I look back up at the other rulers and said "I believe that this paper proves that we will never truly have peace between our races, I say that we continue with our original plan and begin the siege of Lux Aurea."

The other rulers seemed to be taken aback by my sudden display of hostility.

"But King Callum, they Dragon Queen herself has asked us to come to peace talks. Is this not the best way to achieve peace?" Asked King Ahling

"Did you not hear me read the paper, they blamed us for this, they completely ignored the fact that they caused all of this themselves with their actions. If they cannot see their wrongs, then they will never be willing to give us the peace we want. The peace that humanity deserves." I replied

"King Ezran, this is the first time in history that the elves have been willing to have civil talks with us."

"And why do you think that is? They are willing to talk to us because we pose a threat to them. They are willing to talk because they are realizing that we are not as weak as they say we are."

"Even if that is true this is still a chance for peace with no bloodshed. I don't know about the other rulers but I for one am going to take this chance, for the good of my people."

The other rulers nodded their head in agreement. Did the crimes of the elves mean nothing to them? Even Queen Anya agreed with them. Her parents were killed by the Thunder just as my mother was!

"How can you trust that you will come to an agreement when they won't accept the fact that this is all their fault? How can you expect them to listen to you if they don't take responsibility?!" I asked

This time Queen Anya spoke up saying "You speak of the fact that they aren't taking responsibility for their actions but throughout your entire rant you never once mentioned the actions that the Pentarchy, specifically the Kingdom of Katolis, have taken in retaliation. Yes, they started it but if we had chosen not to retaliate then it wouldn't have escalated this far."

My blood boiled at that comment. How dare she take their side; I would have thought that out of everyone here she would have given me the most support since her entire family was also taken by the Dragon King and Queen. But as I thought about it, she was right I had completely ignored what we had done to the elves in retaliation. The worst part was that I should be the one most conscious of this. We had to imprison Viren for inhuman treatment of elves as it had been found out that he was somehow transferring elves souls into coins and collecting them.

Even I had been disgusted by this. The council and I decided that Viren must pay for his inhumane practices. We all agreed that no matter what atrocities we may commit upon each other elves are still sentient beings like humans and therefore Viren should be treated the same as we would treat a mass murder of humans. But when the guards went to imprison him, he was nowhere to be found. His room was in shambles, his bed had been undone, his dresser drawers thrown open and his clothes thrown everywhere, and multiple lamps and pictures had been thrown of their place of rest and smashed. The only thing that was still standing properly was a mirror that I had never seen before.

We searched the castle but, in the end, we were unable to find a trace of Viren, so I called of the search and we cleared out Viren's room. We gave his possessions to Claudia and Soren and I had the mirror stored in the royal vault. And that was the end of it, Viren was never seen or heard from again, and we still have no idea what that mirror is.

I can't believe that I had let my anger blind me so much, I promised myself that I would be the King that would finally change this cycle that has been going on for so long. And in my anger, I had completely ignored any responsibility that we have to the war that has ruined so many lives, both elf and humans.

"I am sorry for my outburst, I let my anger get the best of me and I ended up taking it out you, again, I am sorry for yelling at you all." I said to the other rulers as I looked up at them.

"But, I do still believe that we will have to make them accept the responsibility that we both share for this war, and I still believe that we won't be ab le to negotiate if they still only think of us as lesser creatures." I continued

"I think that we all agree on that point Ezran" King Ahling said as all the other rulers nodded their heads in agreement.

"I am glad that you can understand my concerns. Also I would like to say that I would certainly be willing to go to this conference that the Dragon Queen has arranged, but I will not sit their and attempt to reason if it is found that they are not to be reasoned with, if they do not accept their portion of responsibility I will leave and continue this campaign with or without you."

"I don't think any of us are willing to sit there and talk to a stone wall."

"Then it is agreed that we will accept this invitation and meet with the Dragon Queen?"

All the other rulers nodded their heads in conformation.

"Then gather all important people and a guard large enough to protect your party on the trip."

And with that I turned and entered my tent to ready myself for the trip to come, and to finally see if that elf was telling the truth.

* * *

How was it?

Please comment your opinion of this chapter, the feedback really does help.

Also, I Wanted to put it out there that I could use some people to read the rough draft of the story.

The person I had doing the pre-reading has become unable to continue doing the pre-reading.

That's why I have decided that the first 2 people who Direct Message me will be the new pre-readers.

I will probably add more pre-readers later but I want to smart small for now.

Thank you for reading my story,

Sincerely,

PoliceDog29


End file.
